


Being The New Kid

by flawedamythyst



Series: Winglets AUs [6]
Category: Cabin Pressure, Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-26
Updated: 2016-09-26
Packaged: 2018-08-17 11:46:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8142598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flawedamythyst/pseuds/flawedamythyst
Summary: Tony starts a new high school and meets an interesting exchange student.
High school AU.





	

Starting at a new high school was pretty much always the same. Tony rolled up, got about half an hour to settle in, and then the vultures descended.

"Oh! You're Tony Stark!"

"Hey man, I saw you in a magazine last week."

"Your car is so cool, what kind is it?"

Tony smiled at them all, did his best to answer everything with a joke so that they'd think he was funny and charming, and kept his sunglasses on so that they couldn't see just how bored he was with going through the same conversations all the time.

This was where his dad would point out that he wouldn't have to if he'd just stay at one school and not keep getting expelled, but that wasn't going to happen. A new school was novel for a few months but after that it just became really dull and samey, and he found himself searching for any way to make things more interesting.

Usually, the school didn't approve of that, and he ended up being asked to leave.

This school seemed pretty much identical to all the others. The so-called popular kids had flocked to him and were desperately trying to make him one of their group while at the same time keeping hold of their cool attitudes, the science lab was so second-rate that Tony's workshop made it look like a historical documentary, and even the most advanced math classes were still covering ground Tony had mastered when he was eleven.

The only interesting thing he saw all day was a guy in his English class who had a technical diagram of the Starkjet 2000 on the front of his folder. Tony tried to meet his eye so that he could find out if the guy was an aviation buff, an engineering buff, or both, but the guy escaped the minute class was over with his head down.

Tony didn't see him again until lunch time. He was sat away from everyone else on his own table, head buried in a book.

"Hey, who's that guy?" Tony asked one of the sycophants who were surrounding him.

The guy glanced over and made a face. "British exchange student. Mark or something."

"Martin," said one of the girls. She flicked her hair over her shoulder when she realised Tony was looking at her. "He's in my French class. Any time he has to do an oral thing, all he talks about is planes."

Aviation buff then, not engineering. Ah well, it was probably a bit too much to hope for that Tony would meet someone his age who was just as in to locking himself in a workshop for hours and designing shit.

Still, the guy was kinda cute, with bright ginger hair and freckles covering all the skin Tony could see, and he must have at least some appreciation of engineering to have the tech specs of the Starkjet rather than just a photo.

Tony got up without bothering to tell his adoring masses where he was going and walked over to Martin's table. "Hey, can I join you?"

Martin looked up and his eyes went wide. There was an awkward pause during which he just stared for a bit, then he nodded frantically. "Yes. Yes, please!"

Tony grinned and sat down opposite him. "I saw your folder in English, and I just wanted to congratulate you on your extremely good taste."

Martin made a high-pitched noise in his throat and went an interesting red colour. "Oh! Oh, I just- I have planes on all my folders, I love planes."

"They are pretty awesome," agreed Tony. "How did you decide on the Starkjet for English, then? Why isn't it on maths or science?"

Martin gave a shrug. "I don't know. I did it mostly at random. Well, except for History, that's a Spitfire. Obviously."

"Oh, yeah, obviously," said Tony, feeling a genuine smile cross his face for the first time today. "But the Starkjet's your favourite, right?"

Martin hesitated, and Tony clutched at his chest in an over-dramatic manner. "Oh, don't go and break my heart by saying it's not."

"I don't really have a favourite," said Martin. "There's loads of good ones. Starkjet's got the best winglets though, they're incredible."

Tony stared at him for a beat, and then started laughing. "Okay, awesome. You're just awesome. You just named the one part of the design that I did. The rest was my dad and a bunch of the aviation division guys, but Dad asked me to help out by looking at the winglets."

What he'd actually said was more along the lines of, "Just go and occupy yourself with doing something you can't fuck up, would you?" but Martin didn't need to know that.

Martin's eyes had widened with a level of awe that made Tony want to preen. This was so much better than just being fawned over because of his name, or his money, or who his dad was. Martin was impressed by something Tony had actually done.

"Oh," he said, in a low voice. "Oh, wow. Those are my favourite winglets."

Tony grinned at him. Maybe he'd stick around this school for a bit longer than normal. Or at least until Martin's exchange was up. Hey, maybe if he played his cards right, Dad would consider sending him to a British school next.


End file.
